Jenin: People Gather on Rubble

By Jonathan Frerichs

Note: UMCOR is participating in this effort with its ecumenical partner Action by Churches Together (ACT).

150 pastors, aid workers and officials unloaded 1,500 family ration boxes at a Jenin social service agency. Photo Credit: Action by Churches Together.

An ecumenical convoy brought rations, relief and an international show of support to the heavily damaged West Bank town of Jenin on April 25. "The Joint Humanitarian Relief of the Christian Organizations" sent a convoy of four trucks and 17 accompanying cars to Jenin with 1,500 food parcels, blankets, quilts, health kits, layettes for babies, school kits and medical supplies.

In a 15-hour odyssey that began in Jerusalem some 150 international pastors, priests, bishops and church aid workers escorted the convoy through military checkpoints and then lined up with local volunteers to unload tons of ration boxes, medical supplies, quilts and school kits for hospitalized children. The 21-vehicle convoy was organized by six church organizations in Jerusalem, including ACT member Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

Six thousand people are homeless in Jenin as a result of a fierce ten-day battle earlier this month. The church aid teams visited residents in a once-crowded, refugee neighborhood that is now reminiscent of the scene at 'ground zero' in New York City. People gather on rubble that was their home, individuals pick through broken concrete for personal belongings and, ringing the devastation, families in living rooms stare out through walls torn off by military bulldozers. An old woman sitting on the ruins of her home was crying.

About 50 bodies have been recovered from the battlefield so far. Local residents said about 1,500 people are still unaccounted for as of yesterday, either under the rubble or among the thousands in Israeli detention.

This was the fourth inter-church relief convoy to besieged Palestinian centers in the two weeks since intense violence abated. ACT member International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) took part in some of the convoys in the last two weeks.

April 26, 2002

The Augusta Victoria Hospital helped to organize the convoy to Jenin on the West Bank. UMCOR is providing funds to this Lutheran hospital in Jerusalem for medicine and supplies. There is a particular need to serve additional dialysis patients who are coming to the hospital because they cannot travel to any other medical facility. Photo Credit: Action by Churches Together.

Source: Action by Churches Together, http://www.act-intl.org.